It always seems to be a certain generation though that is morbidly offended when someone dares suggest they have it worse than them.

as I tell my kids, just because you had it worse does not mean someone else doesn’t have it bad. Your “context” is ill timed and unhelpful to people who just lost their jobs. All it demonstrates is that your “more experienced” generation was too busy raging about the greatness of capitalism to make it to church on Sundays and learn a little empathy.

Every time an airline goes under, I think of the monologue from Richard II:

“Let us sit upon the grass and tell sad tales of the deaths of kings”

Then goes on to eloquently list the many ways kings all come to the same end.

Airlines are like that; all living on borrowed time, and any pilot at any airline is fooling themselves if they don’t think it can’t happen to them next and at the worst possible time.

Very sorry to see the Spirit chapter close. I’ll mostly remember your airline union as having the guts to actually avail yourself of the only “self help” any union really has. (Starts with an “s”)

A “tragedy” is what happened to the Jazz flight crew this year. Perspective is required. I hope everyone has a glorious career, gets rich, and doesn’t get fat. But reality is the real “tragedies” are unrecoverable.

It’s not empathetic to wallow in what was. True empathy is helping those affected to recover and prosper as quickly as possible.

Fake empathy actually does more damage to a situation. We see it in our culture much too often nowadays.

Best to all employees and I will do my best to help the few I know move on.

When I was furloughed my wife was pregnant with twins. The world suddenly changed. I felt devastated and betrayed but in the end it encouraged me to relight a fire under my butt to start adding desirable, hirable traits to my resume and i hazard to say my career is actually better in the end had the course not changed. Much less one dimensional.

Anyway you can call me an idiot, won’t change my mind that Spirit going BK for real doesn’t qualify as a “tragedy” as y’all feel it does.

Feel bad for the slow moving train wreck that spirit endned up as. I have to believe that many employees at least foresaw this coming and have taken appropriate steps for them and their families.

With pax majors you can normally see it coming well in advance, years typically. Baring zombie apocalypse, etc.

Sadly this is all true.

Sure we can all wish them the best and we all
hope Spirit pilots find a new home, quickly.

But discussing the cold hard facts and hitting it while it’s fresh IS an important lesson for those reading for the “next” Spirit type shut down, because there will be more.

It’s fresh now and it’s the appropriate time to address the simple fact that you owe the company nothing, concessions do nothing, management is only looking out for themselves, again concessions do nothing, and you have to move on once you see the writing on the wall

These facts don’t remove any empathetic feelings, but this tough love reminder should be heard by all pilots for the next go around.

“This is the business we’ve chosen”

Truth talking about concessions. Independence Air executives espoused they would take a hit for the team as well (25% i think?) against their pay if union workers did the same. Turns out the pay cuts for the pilots was a true concession of givebacks. The Executives? What they never vocalized was their pay concession went into a fully refundable insurance policy which they cashed out later back to themselves when the SS Independence Air sunk in bankruptcy.

Never ever ever ever give concessions, the end will be the same regardless.

This post wins the internet. Self inflicted wounds hurt the most.

I still believe our concessions gave the airline 4 extra months. The DIP financing in December was contingent on it. I made a lot more in those 4 months at convessionary rates than I would have had we shut down after Christmas.

That's the one scenario where concessions might make sense... you're in BK and some sort of rescue/exit plan is absolutely conditional on specific concessions. Still wouldn't expect it to change the ultimate outcome, but maybe buy some time.

Oh just give it up already!!

well they really don’t retrospectively. It is a very different landscape and one which they have had a huge amount of time to figure something out since the writing was on the wall. Is it sad? Absolutely. Do I feel sorry of them? No they chose to stay knowing this was the most likely outcome and now, because of the state of the industry, they can easily get hired. Spare me the tears

Believing anything truthful coming from airline management was the real first mistake.

Brett Snyder’s eulogy for Spirit. https://crankyflier.com/2026/05/04/the-spirit-is-gone/

Yes dude. They do have it bad.

Maybe there was writing on the wall, and it was probably an easy decision for the 28 y/old year 3 FO who still has a lot left in him. His career will recover, especially because hiring now is better than it was then. But what about the 55yo 12+year Captain? Even if a legacy picks him up (they might not because of how old he is) he might JUST get back to his income level by the time he has to retire, and he will never recover the lifestyle that the seniority provided. I don't blame them for sticking it out to see what happens. It doesn't matter if the market is better. They're still on the street now, and they still have to start from the bottom again, if they get hired at all.

I'm so damn tired of all that "you think that's bad" crap. It's as if you believe no one could ever have a legitimate complaint or problem with their career because "aT LeaSt ITs noT 2008". Spare me. Yes, hiring was bad then. We know it was bad. Just because it was bad then doesn't mean it isn't bad now.

And by the way, it takes more than pilots to run an airline. For every one pilot at Spirit their were probably 10 other white and blue collar professionals working to make the company go. All of those people are on the street now, too. And in case you haven't noticed, the white collar job market isn't all that great right now. For them, someone saying "well Delta is hiring xxx amount of pilots this year" is probably little consolation.

I am that captain. Left just over a year ago. Will never get my seniority back, but my schedule (in the right seat) is as good as it was. Pay/TAFH will be the same for me next year , because no commute. If I can upgrade for the last 3 years, I will make up the loss in pay. It definitely wasn't easy to leave. And I'm still hurting every paycheck. But the vast majority (about 80%) of NK pilots senior to me was a lot younger than me. And I don't have the number but from what I saw, the same thing for those junior to me. NK was a great place, but the job is replaceable.

Pilots were the second largest direct employee group after flight attendants. So no, it was not a 10 to 1 ratio.

As for the others, their experience does not go away. They will be strong candidates for the available positions at other airlines. United has been hiring a lot of dispatchers recently. Everyone is hiring mechanics. Contract ops at the outstations will just be reassigned to other airlines.

I do think FLL ops will have a hard time finding a replacement job in the area, and there may not be enough industry positions for all of the FA's. But most of the NK folks will find jobs at other airlines....will lose seniority and probably have to relocate.

What will happen is as NK folks take the available positions at other airlines, there will be less movement from the regionals. Less movement from regionals, less opportunities for people new to the industry. The impact will trickle down.

You didn’t make a coherent point. The 3 year FOs for the most part all left years ago. The 55 year old guys mostly chose to retire early. Every one I know had the money to do so and the ones that didn’t all had a plan B. Nothing that you said changes the fact that yes they had years to make the decision EITHER WAY in the most pilot friendly hiring environment in history. So since you failed to add anything relevant to the conversation I will say again, although it’s sad spare me your tears. You don’t need to constantly virtue signal.

Imagine you live in Florida and a hurricane wipes out your house. You evacuated in time and saved your family and your valuables. The insurance company calls and says "not to worry, we've sent you a check covering your mortgage." You've got a contractor lined up to start new construction within the week. Everything is proceeding as well as it can, but none of that changes the fact that you still LOST YOUR HOUSE.

And and you're standing there on the sidewalk, taking in the pile of soggy rubble that used to be your home, some clown strolls up and goes "Well you shouldn't have built a house in Florida!" "You think you've got it bad?! When I lost my house it took a year for the contractor to start rebuilding!"

I'm not virtue signalling. I'm pointing out how needlessly calloused and tone deaf you people are.

I can see it both ways…his take is somewhat insensitive but at the same time not as calloused as you say. This industry has a way of kicking career professionals in the balls unlike any other. That being said, the information has been there for anyone to make an informed decision since the day the jetBlue merger was shot down. The option was to be proactive and cut your losses or stay and hope for the best. A lot of that decision making is a combination of life circumstances, personality traits, and self motivation. I left NK in my mid-40’s with 12 years of seniority and owning a home in one of the most expensive markets in the country, all while putting a kid through college. I had every reason to stay and hope for the best. Personally, that was no longer an option once the judge told us to get bent.

Former Spirit employees claim the airline failed to give them proper notice about the company’s collapse. https://viewfromthewing.com/spirit-a...r-60-days-pay/

Link to the lawsuit: https://document.epiq11.com/document...=SPJ&source=DM

I'm pretty sure they were given a 2 year notice.

Haha.. without reading the article, some states (I think New Jersey is one of them) do require proper notice of termination, or pay the difference.. and if the crew is based in a state with such laws (and if such law is applicable to any crew that flies through such state).. I say give more money to those who deserve it and let those who decided to shut us down get less..

That probably doesn't apply in federal chapter 7, company ceased to exist. But good luck, who knows.

Screw that, our society is already filled with enough people filing frivolous lawsuits! These yahoos sound like the usual suspects. Don't need to advocate this and create more! On a side note....why do these guys "deserve" it?

Spirit has yet to file ch7. They ceased flight operations but the company still exists under ch11.

Did they pay the employees the May 15th paycheck?